Browse archives: 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997 | 1996 | 1995

Published on 01/15/1996 All articles from this issue

Taking a bite out of crime

printer friendly version

By Joanne Griffith Domingue / Town Crier Staff Writer

Los Altos gets its own police dog to usher in K-9 program

He's strong. His legs are long, his body lean.

He's assertive. His attitude says he's a leader.

He's friendly. But his message is clear: don't mess with me.

Meet Disco Vander Noriswand, the 17-month-old, 70-pound male German shepherd from Frankfurt, Germany, the Los Altos Police Department's first canine.

"Right now he's just a German shepherd with good blood lines," said Jim Faggiano, the K-9 trainer selected by the Los Altos Police Department to work with Disco.

"In six weeks, he'll be a police dog."

Craig Penley, 30, an eight-year veteran of the Los Altos Police Department, is Disco's handler. That means Disco lives with Penley, goes to work with Penley, and, once trained, will be Penley's partner.

"I teach the handler," Faggiano said. "The handler trains the dog."

Together Penley and Faggiano drove to San Francisco Jan. 4 to meet Disco's Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt.

"We took him out of his crate, walked him, and then Craig and the dog were off on their own," Faggiano said.

The first project is for Penley and Disco to get to know each other during a two-week "bonding period," Penley said.

"Everything is so new it upsets him (Disco) physically, and he gets sick. When he's uncomfortable he goes into his shipping kennel, the one thing from home (Germany). When he feels good, he comes out."

Faggiano said the crate becomes a security blanket for the dog.

"When we're by ourselves he picks up his attitude - his confidence level. I use his tail as a barometer for that. When his tail is between his legs he's scared. When his tail come up, he's feeling better.

"He wags his tail with me at home. When we're out and about he wags and sniffs."

Disco went through extensive training in Germany, and responds to commands in German, which Penley is learning.

"It's like having a toddler. We hold hands - he's on a leash. A shorter lead bolsters his confidence," Penley said.

But before police dog training can begin here, Penley and Disco need to know each other and build a good, strong relationship, Faggiano said.

"A dog has no reason to put forth for a stranger."

Formal training with Disco, Penley and Faggiano will begin Jan. 29 and last about four weeks. The training sessions are one on one, not like an obedience class, and will be every day, for four-to-five hour segments, with breaks in between.

"We train and test all the way along," Faggiano said. Disco and Penley will need to pass the police officer standard for training to meet criteria set by the state.

A trainer other than Faggiano will do the testing. You don't test dogs and handlers that you've trained, he said.

"It's a definite process before the dog goes on the street. He's not an instant police dog. And then he goes through training for the rest of his life."

Faggiano has been a K-9 trainer since 1969. He's been the trainer for Mountain View police for 21 years, with Milpitas for 20 years and Pleasanton for 15 years. He also works for Alameda and other agencies.

After their first week together, Penley said Disco is "responding to me better off leash, in a closed environment. He's responding to 'heel' from me. It's a relief to see things coming along."

Penley, one of three applicants for the K-9 handler position in Los Altos, said he's been interested in K-9 handling since he was a 16-year-old Explorer Scout in Palo Alto.

"I've always wanted to be a handler, and I'm really grateful for the opportunity."

Faggiano, in his history of police dogs, said they have been used by law enforcement officers for several centuries. But the first sophisticated program to use dogs began in Belgium in 1899. The Germans adopted it 10 years later and opened a large police dog academy shortly after World War I.

New York was the first American city to use police dogs. But their program taught dogs to be hostile to anyone not wearing a uniform. Their program didn't last.

Baltimore began the first successful police canine unit in the United States in 1957 with 14 dogs and handlers. By 1970 Baltimore had 61 dogs and was one of 80 American police departments using K-9s.

Washington D.C. has the largest canine division today with over 200 dogs.

The first successful, continuous and still active California K-9 programs started in 1959 in Milpitas and Stockton, Faggiano said.

After a week together, Penley said Disco is "responding to me better. It's a relief to see things coming along.

"When he comes into my kitchen, a real small kitchen, I don't want him in there. So I say 'out,' and he backs up to the perimeter. Then he starts inching back in."

But Penley still keeps Disco on his leash. "If I took him off leash, he'd go look for Hanz or Franz or his trainer from Germany."

Last Thursday Penley walked Disco from the Police Department to Main Street. As they passed office windows, and people saw them go by, word got out that "the K-9's here." Well-wishers and dog-patters lined the route like a parade.

The dog is the end result of months of community fund-raising and people are excited that Disco is here.

Three major benefactors, the Los Altos Rotary Club, Kiwanis Club and the Los Altos Homeowners' League raised $17,000 of the $20,000 that has been donated for the K-9 program, said Los Altos police chief Lucy Carlton.

"They truly were the movers and shakers to make the dog possible," Carlton said.

K-9 ETIQUETTE

DOS:

• Ask the handler if it's OK to approach the dog.

• Treat the dog like a dog. It's not a human being.

• Pet the dog only with the handler's permission

DON'Ts:

• Feed the dog. He's trained to refuse food.

• Use any command you have heard the handler use.

• Come running up. The dog could see that as an assault on the handler.